The present invention relates to a data generating device and also to a control unit, a control method, and a storing medium storing a program for controlling the data generating device.
A conventional computer is usually provided with an application software and a printer engine. In order for obtaining images using a printer, first a user generates image data using the application software at the computer. Then, the image data is converted into print data by the printer engine and transmitted to the printer. The printer performs printing operation for forming images based on the received print data.
Japanese Patent Application Publication (Kokai) No. 11-296334 discloses a computer including a memory which stores a plurality of overlay macros. The overlay macros are for automatically forming predetermined stamp images over an original image on a recording sheet. The stamp mark may be “CONFIDENTIAL”, “COMPANY SECRET”, “COPY”, “IMPORTANT”, and the like. In this configuration, a user generates image data and selects a desired overlay macro at the computer. Then, a printer engine of the computer converts the image data into print data, and appends the selected overlay macro to the print data. The print data appended with the selected overlay macro is output to a printer, and the printer executes printing for producing the original image with the stamp mark formed over the original image.
However, when the generated image includes a plurality of pages, then the user cannot select a different overlay macro for each of the pages. Therefore, when the user wishes to use a different stamp mark for each of the pages, the user needs to generate stamp marks on the application or retrieve the stamp marks from a memory and then attach the stamp marks to the respective pages using the application. These operations are time consuming and troublesome for the user.
In order to overcome the above problems, there has been proposed a printer system including a computer and a printer connected to the computer, where a user can set a different macros for each of a plurality of pages. Specifically, the printer includes a memory which stores a plurality of macros. When the user generates image data for a plurality of pages, the user selects a desired macro for each of the pages. Then, print data corresponding to the image data is output to the printer along with information indicating the selected macros. The printer retrieves macros which are indicated by the received information, and executes printing based on both the print data and the retrieved macros. In this way, the printer can printout a plurality of pages based on a corresponding different macro.
However, in this case, the printer needs to include the memory for storing macros and also a large capacity for processing data. Moreover, because the memory of the printer usually has a limited memory capacity, a stamp mark having a relatively large data size may not be used.